NASCAR Chicago Street Race 2024: Shane van Gisbergen returns to the city where his American journey began

By his admission, Shane van Gisbergen isn't much of a city person.

Given the choice between a metropolis or the countryside, Shane van Gisbergen -- SVG for short -- much prefers the latter. And coming from Auckland, New Zealand, it isn't as if the city of Chicago ever struck him as particularly grandiose or culturally significant. As far as he knew, it was a city that was going to hold NASCAR's first-ever street race that he would be competing in. The finer points of the backdrop and Chicago's place in the American cultural consciousness, from "The Blues Brothers" to Second City or the "Monsters of the Midway," were relatively lost on him.

And yet, the streets of Chicago made him the first driver in the modern era of NASCAR to ever win in his Cup Series debut. And it also marked the origin point of his going from a champion driver in Australian V8 Supercars to a new journey, and a new normal, through as many corners of America as he can drive a stock car through.

"I guess it's hard to be a race car driver and be normal and everything. Life's always different, it always has been for me," van Gisbergen told CBS Sports. "But I moved here in mid-December and committed to being here, and it's just been awesome."

One year ago, van Gisbergen arrived in Chicago as a hired gun for Trackhouse Racing's Project91, a part-time program aimed toward giving international racing stars a chance to compete at NASCAR's highest level. He had been to America for his racing career before, but when van Gisbergen stunned everyone by winning his debut, the course of his racing career changed dramatically.

He wound up leaving V8 Supercars for the United States to race in NASCAR full-time, taking the opportunity to race for an Xfinity Series championship while pursuing a limited slate of Cup starts with a mix of opportunities to race and win on road courses -- his specialty -- and learn the finer points of racing on ovals, an entirely different discipline from what he had mastered on the other side of the world.

Van Gisbergen has already won twice in the Xfinity Series on road courses at Portland and Sonoma, and he has also made progress on ovals -- he ran third at Atlanta and sixth at Phoenix earlier this year. And in the process, he has been exposed to much of his new country, and the regional differences it offers that he is still coming to appreciate with a fresh pair of eyes.

"For how close everything is, relatively, people speak so different," van Gisbergen said of what he's noticed of American life. "And especially here in the south where we're based, how everyone who I'm with almost every day sort of talks. It's very different, and very interesting how people are so different.

"But I've found everyone to be pretty nice. They're always welcoming, always happy to chat and give advice if I need it, whether it's drivers or people. I've enjoyed most of it."

The way van Gisbergen has been embraced among Americans, particularly American race fans, is unique in that it has become a case study of quick and near-universal acceptance of a foreign-born competitor. The instant credibility that he gained by winning in his NASCAR debut certainly helped, but van Gisbergen has quickly gone from being fairly unknown when he arrived last year to being received in a way that celebrates his world-class driving skill as well as his Kiwi heritage. His new signature victory celebration, signing and then punting a rugby ball into the crowd, proved an instant hit when it was debuted last month.

"It's interesting. It's pretty overwhelming," he said. "I'm a pretty quiet sort of guy with that stuff, and coming into Chicago last year was perfect for me. No one expected us to do well, mainly because no one knew who I was. To me that was the perfect race being I was sort of unknown. It was good, but the positive side is I'm liked for good reasons I guess.

"it's been amazing the response. All the merchandise that people have been buying and wearing and seeing people all around, it's humbling. ... It's really cool to be embraced by the people here. And then also the Australian and New Zealand side.

The following van Gisbergen has gained on two different sides of the globe now undoubtedly includes a significant following in one of the biggest cities in all of America. In its long and storied history as a sports town, Chicago has served as one of the nation's great hero-makers, glorifying the athletes who thrive there. From Dick Butkus and Ernie Banks to Michael Jordan and Bobby Hull, the Windy City reveres and sanctifies a winner in its competitive and cultural canon.

For the race fans of Chicago, van Gisbergen has become a winner. And there is sure to be a great deal of support for him as he tries to capture another checkered flag in NASCAR's return to the Chicago Street Course this weekend. And even if city life isn't for him, and even as he discovers all he still has to learn about the United States, he has been able to find meaning for himself in one of the country's great commercial and cultural epicenters, and in his own origin point for the American dream he now pursues.

"That place is gonna be special, I guess, for the rest of my life," van Gisbergen said of Chicago. "Racing there and just the event that it was was so impressive. The first-ever street race for NASCAR, to showcase it at a place like that right on the waterfront in front of the city there, all those big buildings.

"It was impressive how good of a show it was. It was a horrible weather weekend and the concerts got cancelled, and it was still an amazing show. So I think this year is gonna be even bigger."